The present disclosure relates generally to information processing and, in particular, to methods, systems, and computer program products for gathering information and statistics from a community of nodes in a network.
With the ever-increasing amount of information available electronically, data mining and information collecting regarding consumer behaviors have become a necessity in order for businesses to stay competitive. For example, marketing units strive to collect various types of information on consumers in order to develop new strategies and businesses. Currently, in order to foster and facilitate new business opportunities, enterprises utilize profile information provided by consumers or other individuals (e.g., end users) who seek information or products from the enterprises (e.g., via online searches, website activity, etc.). Statistical analysis of this end user information is typically performed at a centralized processing device of the enterprise or by a representative of the enterprise (e.g., third-party data mining/data warehouse service provider). Typically, search engines of the business enterprise system create copies of the content, which are then processed at the centralized system.
In order to address consumer privacy concerns, various schemes have been developed such that before user information is accessed and collected, it is either encrypted or scrambled in such a way that it is not possible (or is at least very difficult) to specifically identify a particular end user who is subject to the collected information. However, in these cases, the information is still required to transit at some point from the end user to a central location in order for it to be processed. For example, in a telephone survey, the individual is required to provide information to the business enterprise via the telephone line. Likewise, in the case of Internet surveys, the user information is sent back to a surveying server, etc., from the collection source of the business enterprise.
It is not surprising that many people are often reluctant to send their private information anywhere. Thus, when businesses desire to analyze very sensitive data such as consumer spending (e.g., credit cards, bills, shopping behavior, etc.) for the purpose of defining behavioral trends, this privacy can become a major issue that needs to be addressed.
What is needed, therefore, is a way to gather information and statistics from individuals and create profiles from this statistical information that are devoid of any information that is considered to be private including information that personally identifies any of the individuals, thereby protecting each individual's right to privacy.